Arabica Estate Cafe, Kota Bahru


Hello my loves! With Chinese New Year approaching, I have been really looking forward to going back home to the comfort of all the good food I know is awaiting me. Thank God however that Kota Bahru is a place full of new finds and good food too to satisfy me in the meantime. I have been going around checking out some of the new cafes that have been popping up around Kota Bahru and have been pretty satisfied with a few of them. If you have not read about my previous cafe hopping experience, I'll link it here in this post too. 



So far I have visited Chapter Cafe which is quite a pleasant cafe with their good milkshake and soft shell crab, 


Maraschino Cafe which brings me back down memory lane and has the ever popular Shibuya Honey Toast that you just have to try as well as 


Lugano Cafe which I have frequented several times plus is so far the most affordable cafe in town yet!


This time round however, I stopped by at Arabica Estate located just behind Tesco Kota Bahru opposite the bus station. It was listed as one of the must visit cafe in Kota Bahru so I was looking forward to dining here. For those of you who are not familiar with Kota Bahru, it is actually located along the same row as the MARA college or you can just search in Waze for Arabica Estate :)


I supposed their decor was to imitate an estate feel with their brick walls and although the establishment was not very big, it was cozy enough to cater to roughly 50 people. You can choose to dine al-fresco or indoors with the aircond and with the weather nowadays, I chose to dine indoors plus it was rather dusty outside so I would not really recommend sitting outside. You will be able to see their array of yummy looking cakes in the cake display which really tempted me but again I cannot really eat too much if I am alone.


The menu is really very simple with a few main dish choices as well as a variety of drinks. The photos in the menu do look really tempting and price-wise, yet another cafe to make me happy. It sure is very affordable for their mains with their Sirloin Steak pricing at only RM33; it was definitely much more cheaper than in KL but I am not sure how the locals would judge the price.


One of their specialty would be their dessert I assume with quite a few choices of waffles! They do look laden with toppings and I had quite a hard choice choosing which waffle to try. Unfortunately they were not serving all the choices on that day most probably because I went on a Friday afternoon during the Friday prayers. But the good news is: It's open during Friday prayers! So to those who are looking for a place to dine during that time this is somewhere you can try as most eateries in Kelantan are closed during Friday prayers.


After some deliberation with my partner for that day, we decided to order a Pizza Pepperoni and a Wonderberry Waffle to share. Both of us ordered Caffe Latte (hot/cold) as well.


The food took a while to arrive and while waiting for the food, our drinks arrived. Disappointed with the coffee art that I received, the start of my meal did not really begin well. However, I was satisfied with the brew of coffee they served though lacking good coffee art skills. It was fragrant, had a tinge of sweetness to it and smooth down the throat. I am starting to appreciate coffee these days; signs of getting older I guess.



The Pizza Pepperoni (RM18) we ordered was really quite huge! 8 huge slices with generous amount of cheese and pepperoni, the flavor of the pizza was really quite good. It is a thin crust pizza so please do not even try to use your fork and knife to cut through it because it would be quite useless. Just use your hands, pick it up and dig in. The both of us weren't able to finish up the whole pizza although we did try!


Now comes the highlight I would say because I had rather high hopes for the waffle. We ordered the Wonderberry (RM15) although the James Brownie was really tempting too because I wanted to try a more fruity version instead of the chocolate type which I have been trying the past few cafe hopping. The Wonderberry is a rose-infused waffle with supposedly torched meringue (which obviously wasn't torched here). topped with strawberries and blueberries, toasted nuts, love letter , whipped cream and vanilla ice-cream ending with a drizzle of strawberry coulis or syrup. Presentation wise, I get that hash sign using chocolate but it does not really add much flavor to the waffle. The waitress asked us if we would prefer a crispy waffle or a soft waffle so we ordered the crispy waffle which I guess means leaving it in the waffle machine a while longer giving it a darker color and crispier edge. The waffle was fluffy, not overly dry which was a plus point and the cold vanilla ice-cream was a great opposite for the warm waffle. I could not actually taste any rose from the waffle as the strawberry coulis does overpower the rose scent but the waffle was actually pink on the inside instead of the regular waffles you normally get. I guess the rose-infused batter they used to make the waffle gave it a pink tinge.

Overall, I would say that the mains and coffee served in Arabica Estate shines over their desserts although I would not know how their cakes fare. Total damage here was RM53 for two people which was relatively normal for a cafe but I would have higher hopes for this place. I would recommend you to try their mains and coffee here but for the waffle, I would rather ask you to try the delicious pancakes at Lugano Cafe for half the price.

Arabica Estate Cafe

Kampung Sirih, Kota Bahru

+60 12-7793757 

Open daily
11 am - 11 pm


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